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Monday, 26 September 2016

Playground Showcase

Hello!! Welcome to the Playground Showcase, featuring Amy Sinibaldi's latest line for Art Gallery Fabrics. The colours in this collection are so completely perfect; pink, coral, mustard, plum and blue. All my favourites! We were still in the thick of winter when I was planning the quilt design, the days were mostly grey and dreary. Creating a quilt of spring bulbs was the perfect way to bring my favourite season forward a little.

I started out with the nine-patch tulip block from '1000 Great Quilt Blocks' by Maggi McCormick Gordon. I made a few changes, removing the nine-patch at the centre, changing some of the proportions and shrinking it to a 6" block. I drafted the pattern in EQ7, then cut plastic templates for most of the pieces. Templates might be a slower way to go but I think they're worth it for accuracy, especially with tricky shapes like these. The plastic templates also made it easy to fussy cut the fabrics.

Spring is officially here now but the quilt is still brightening my day up, it's hanging on the wall where I pinned it to take photos, I don't really want to take it down. Can you tell how wet and grey it was when I took the photos? I've had to do a lot of editing to brighten them up!

The tulip blocks are scattered across the quilt in my first attempt at an improv style, off-grid layout. I was feeling brave! I laid the blocks out randomly then filled in the gaps with the background fabric. To keep track of the quilt size, I used my Irish Chain quilt as a guide, laying the blocks out on top of the quilt. I liked the way the Irish Chain looked peeking through so I added a few on-point squares to the quilt. I like the quirkiness of that little addition. My cat was (as usual) drawn to the quilt, I wasn't too happy the day she ran all over it with muddy paws! But she does look cute sitting on it!

The quilting was done by Donna Ward on her long arm machine. I was keen on figure eight quilting but Donna wasn't sure about doing it without any horizontal reference points in the piecing, so she came up with the idea of adding wavy lines and using those as the reference points. Brilliant! I love the softness that all those curves bring to the pointy corners of the tulip block.

With the quilt finished, I shrunk the 6" block down to a 3" on-point paper pieced block, the perfect size to feature on the cover of a needle book. Of course I used Amy's needle book tutorial. These fabrics work so well in teeny tiny piecing too! I will be popping the free 3" spring bulb pattern in my Craftsy store very soon.

And finally, one more make to share...

Anna Maria Horner's Gathering Flowers quilt block is a perfect match for Playground fabrics don't you think? This is going to be a pillow for my daughter. I just need to decide whether to keep it square or trim it for a round pillow. Hmmm....

Amy has written a blog post about her inspiration for the fabric line, and you can see swatches of all the fabrics, and the look book by clicking here. Visit the links below to check out what everyone else is making in the Playground Showcase. There are so many beautiful makes already and we're only half way through. Seriously, you'll need a little time to check out these blog posts! Oh and if you're on Instagram, the hashtag is #playgroundshowcase.

Wow! Rachel, you have created a beautiful quilt. Stunning. Spring tulips are divine. Love the quilting. Also love the little needle books . Looking forward to the free pattern, so that I can make one too.